Sunday, December 30, 2007

Dallas Stars 5, St. Louis Blues 4 (SO)

By Mark Stepneski of Andrew's Stars Page

DALLAS — After missing on a great scoring chance that could have ended the game in overtime, Stars center Mike Modano delivered in the shootout. Modano scored the only goal of the shootout as the Dallas Stars beat the St. Louis Blues 5-4 at the American Airlines Center Saturday night.

"Guys think about that and they want to get that back," Stars coach Dave Tippett. "Mo got the second chance and that was the one we needed."

The Stars survived a gallant effort by the Paul Kariya led Blues, who rallied from 2-0 and 3-1 deficits and then scored with 10.7 seconds left in the game to force overtime. Kariya scored three goals in the third period.

"Kariya had a heck of a third period," said Tippett. "That was a top player doing what top players are supposed to do, taking control of the game. He gave their team a chance to win."

He ended up helping get a point for the Blues, who saw their winless streak hit four games (0-2-2).

Niklas Hagman, Stu Barnes, Modano and Mike Ribeiro scored for the Stars, who won their fourth straight game and for the eighth time in their last nine.

"It wasn't our best game, but those points are important at the end of the year," said Ribeiro. "It was a chippy game, but we are happy with the win."

Mike Smith stopped all three shots in the shootout, including a nifty glove save on Kariya, improving to 9-9 over his career and improved his shootout record to 3-0.

"Can't say enough about the way we battled and we are finding way to get points right now," Smith said. "That's the most important thing."

Jeff Halpern made a nice play to set up a Modano blast from the slot that gave the Stars a 3-1 lead at 4:01 of the third period. But Kariya and the Blues fought back and made it interesting the rest of the way. Kariya scored off the rush at 5:36 from the left circle to make it a 3-2 game. Kariya scored again at 10:31 off a nice feed from Brad Boyes to tie the game at 3-3.

The Stars retook the lead with 5:01 remaining when Brenden Morrow set up Ribeiro, who scored on a backhand from the top of the crease.

But Kariya struck again, scoring through traffic from the right circle with just 10.7 seconds left.

"It changed direction a little bit," said Smith. "It's just tough to read it when that happens. It just found a way in like it had eyes. I thought I had it, but I just didn't squeeze hard enough."

The Stars came out strong, scoring two goals 47 seconds apart to take an early 2-0 lead. The first one came just after their first power play of the game expired. Jussi Jokinen grabbed the rebound of a Jeff Halpern shot, went behind the net and centered the puck to Hagman, who scored from the top of the crease at 8:14.

The Stars struck again at 9:01 when a Stu Barnes centering pass attempt hit the leg of Blues forward Keith Tkachuk and slipped past Toivonen.

The Blues pulled to within one a little more than four minutes later when Tkachuk was able to tap a loose puck to David Perron, who beat Smith with a shot from the left circle at the 13:15 mark of the period.

Andrew's Dallas Stars Page has been online since 1996

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